MISSIONARY FINDS PEACE DESPITE FAMILY DEATHS

Jim Bowers' faith is helping him come to terms with losing his wife
and daughter to gunfire from a Peruvian jet that mistook the family's
plane for drug smugglers.

The Muskegon missionary said he and his 6-year-old son, Cory, have
found an inexplicable peace.

"I'm trusting that God is in control. I'm leaving it in his hands,"
Bowers is quoted as saying in the Muskegon Chronicle. "The bottom
line is, God knew what He was doing. He has been in control of this
whole situation."

Veronica (Roni) Bowers, 35, and 7-month-old Charity were killed by
the same bullet in the attack April 20. Jim Bowers said he believes
they are safe in God's presence.

Since the shooting, the ranks of missionaries and other Christian
workers have been growing, a reaction in part to the tragedy, he said.

"I have to live with the fact that I miss her," Bowers said. "But
that doesn't compare with the positive things. I have been getting
e-mails from a lot of people whose lives have been changed. I have
more confirmation of the good that's been happening."

Bowers said he never has nightmares about the attack, the pontoon
plane's crash into the Amazon River, and rescuing the bodies of his
wife and baby. But he said he doesn't always make it through the
night without tears.

Interviewed during a week-long visit with friends in Muskegon, Bowers
and his son will be the guests of the Muskegon Air Fair on Saturday.
They'll watch the Blue Angels and other aerial acrobats leave their
trails across the sky.

The United States and Peru have suspended drug interdiction flights
while they investigate the deaths. Peru began shooting down suspected
drug planes in the early 1990s to stop frequent flights carrying
cocaine.

In September, Bowers will return to Peru to meet with a family who
may replace his family as missionaries.

Bowers doesn't plan to return permanently to the South American
nation, although he has no regrets about serving there.

"Obviously, it hurts," he said. "But God works mysteriously to give
me comfort so that I don't have to be sad all the time."

"I lost my very best friend and my main coworker and deck hand, a big
part of me and who I am. Her absence touches nearly every area of my
life," Bowers said of his wife of 15 years.

"I'm thinking much more about her now than when she was around."